CHERIE CURRIE

MADONNA IN THE 1980'S

Gee what an original concept Madonna came up with...I wonder where she ever came up with that idea ????

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Let The Penguin Surf !

Its a Rock & Roll retelling of the H.G. Wells classic featuring , Justin Hayward (of The Moody Blues), Phil Lynott, Julie Covington, David Essex and Chris Thompson...

Most of the lyrics on the album were written by former Elton John lyricist Gary Osborne. The album was recorded on 48 tracks.

The repetition of "Ulla!", the cry made by the Martians, and certain musical refrains throughout the musical act as leitmotifs.

The official album comes with several paintings by Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim that help to illustrate the story from beginning to end.

A 1998 computer game version, Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds, was created by Rage Software.

Jeff Wayne produced the musical arrangements for the game, consisting of 45 minutes of material re-scored and remixed in a newer electronica style with techno beats.

The game's artwork was based on the illustrations found throughout the original album booklet, and some of Burton's dialogue as the journalist is used in the opening scenes.

A live tour, based on the album, took place in the UK and Ireland in April 2006

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"Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty.
Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST". Zappa from Joes Garage.

by Rip Rense
(May 2, 2008)
copyright 2008 Rip Rense, The Rip Post, all rights reserved.

Former John Lennon paramour May Pang revealed that Lennon---the man who instigated The Beatles' break-up---actively planned to reunite them in 1974, but that "logistics" got in the way, The Rip Post has learned.

This is the first report ever that Lennon not only wanted to make new Beatles music, but planned to do it.

Pang’s revelation came during a lengthy interview with Casey Piotrowski, host of the nationally syndicated weekly radio program, “The Beatles Show,” in which she said that the ex-Beatle wanted to record one new song with the group as a prelude to a possible formal reunion.

"If one (song) comes around and it works, maybe we'll do another,” Lennon said, according to Pang. "It was to be behind the scenes. A quick one-off, and let’s see from there."

Piotrowski’s full interview with Pang airs May 3 on WPMD-FM, the Cerritos College station, and later in 23 other markets across the country. (See box below for full list of stations.)

In a follow-up interview with The Rip Post, Pang confirmed the reunion story, and added that Lennon considered upstate New York, possibly Syracuse, as site for the new Beatles session. There was no talk of song titles, and the plan never got past the talking stage, but Pang said it was clear that this was something Lennon “absolutely” intended to do.

“John really thought about it at one point, and we were considering it early on in ’74, just for the **** of it,” said 57-year-old Pang, reached in New York. “Harry Nilsson wanted to be a part of it. We said, oh, that would be a good idea---a one-off, and we would do it in the fall. We were thinking about upstate New York, like Syracuse, because Ringo couldn’t be in New York City. We were in the middle of a lawsuit and he didn’t want to be subpoenaed.”

The astonishing revelation is not in Pang’s new book of snapshots and short reminiscences based on her time with Lennon, “Instamatic Karma” (St. Martin’s), and was not in her first book about Lennon, “Loving John,” published in 1983. She has not mentioned it in other recent interviews.

“It could just be that no one ever asked the question of her before: did John ever speak about reuniting the Beatles?” said radio host Piotrowski. “The remarks (to me) came so naturally and were so unrehearsed that I absolutely believe them. And, if she was just trying to sell the book, she would have put that information in there.”

Asked why the report had not come out before, Pang said she erroneously thought she had included it in her first book, “Loving John.”

“I thought I’d put it in there,” she told The Rip Post. “And then people said to me, ‘I don’t remember reading that!’ . . .But I think a lot of things were cut out. See, I wrote about 600 pages, and my co-author (Henry Edwards) was really the point man they went to. I was a novice, not the seasoned person. If I wanted something in, they didn’t consult me. I may say it, but half the time it didn’t go in. . .So in the end, I did not realize what was in or wasn’t. But that was one of the things that I did talk about. I found my 600 page original manuscript, and I’m considering putting back stories that didn’t make it the first time.”

The disclosure rewrites Beatles history.

The group split up at Lennon’s instigation in a chaos of recriminations between him and McCartney in 1970, following years of increasing disharmony involving the direction of the band’s music, their Apple Corps business, and personal frictions. The pair subsequently engaged in public sniping, and feuded on their solo albums. They traded shots, for instance, with Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?” on the “Imagine” album (“so Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise. . .”) and McCartney’s “Too Many People” (“you took your lucky break and broke it in two.”) Lennon let loose with a caustic rant in an interview with Jann Wenner that became chapter-and-verse history (the 1971 book, “Lennon Remembers”) rather than the passing outburst it was.

The conventional thinking is that the ex-Beatles never resolved their differences in Lennon’s lifetime, and that McCartney and Lennon in particular were in little more than rare telephonic contact at the time of Lennon’s horrific murder in 1980.

Yet Pang, who spent almost two years with the Lennon in 1974-’75, and remained in contact with him to the end of his life, describes things very differently. McCartney, she said, was a very frequent visitor during her time with Lennon, who was also on good terms with George and Ringo. (A sloppy party jam session from the time with McCartney on drums and Lennon, Stevie Wonder, and others has long been bootlegged.)

“I saw all of them," she said. "We had three in one room in each instance. In L.A., it was John, Paul, and Ringo, and in New York, it was John, Paul and George. And you would never in a million years think that they had problems.”

She described Lennon as feeling “sentimental” about The Beatles days, during her time with him. He was, she emphasized, at peace with his Beatle past, and the other Beatles.

“I think he was, absolutely. There was no animosity. We spent all this time with Ringo, you know. We went out to L.A., Ringo played on (Nilsson's) ‘Pussycats,’ John wrote a song for him (“Goodnight Vienna”), and then of course, we were with George in New York, and he said, ‘If you need my help, I’ll come out, I’ll work with you.’ He cared for his brothers. He was okay with all of them, including Paul.”

Lennon’s fond feelings for The Beatles are, in fact, probably hinted at in his song, “#9 Dream,” from the number-one 1974 album that Pang coordinated and did art direction for, “Walls and Bridges.” With lyrics including “So long ago/ was it in a dream/ I thought I could feel music touching my soul,” the song is thought to have been a paean to his days with the band---certainly quite the flipside of the line, “I don’t believe in Beatles” from "God" on the 1970 “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” album.

The reunion idea first came up in early 1974 conversation in Los Angeles during the period Lennon dubbed his “Lost Weekend”---the artistically productive 18-month separation from wife Yoko Ono, during which he caroused with friends, recorded “Walls and Bridges,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll,” produced Harry Nilsson’s “Pussycats” album, and performed live with Elton John.

“We had been hanging out with Ringo a lot in L.A.,” said Pang, who was Lennon’s constant companion during the period. “And it just came out of conversation, hanging out: ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be great if we did this one gig,’ and they’d start talking about it. ‘Yeah, well, why don’t we do this, and George would do that, and Paul. . .’ So it was just thrown around, and everybody was like, well. . .let’s do that.”

Or, as she told radio host Piotrowski:
“It was early in '74 when it was discussed. (Quoting John) ‘Maybe we could do it for Fall of '74.’ And Harry Nilsson even said, "Oh, I want to sing", you know? But, obviously, certain things were not meant to be, as I would say."

A date for the reunion was never firmed up beyond the fall.

“Well, it was a time frame, not so much a date, but a time frame where they were thinking about it. It was, ‘Yeah, we’ve got to talk to Paul, let’s think about this.’ Of course at that point, in L.A., Mal Evans was there (the Beatles’ longtime, beloved “roadie,” who was killed when he allegedly drunkenly aimed a rifle at Los Angeles Police responding to a call for help from his girlfriend), and Ringo. John always knew that if he really just sort of like focused in, it could probably be done.”

What were the “logistics” that got in the way of what would have been one of the most historic events in music history?
“Everybody had other plans,” said Pang, bringing to mind Lennon’s famous line from his 1980 song, “Beautiful Boy:” “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

“Yes. Right. Exactly,” she said. “Because nobody took the helm. If you really think about it, everybody had something to do. This would have taken four different heads, four different parties, to make it work. They were no longer under one roof, they were under four different roofs. Everybody had their own manager, or rep, or lawyer, or whatever else you want to call it. . . . It definitely was more about the timing. Everybody was everywhere. George was getting his tour together. Paul was getting ready for whatever he was doing, and Ringo was doing his album.”

“Instamatic Karma” features a collection of snapshots mostly taken by Pang during her time with the ex-Beatle. The photos show a very happy and playful Lennon, Nilsson, Ringo, and various others who comprise a who’s-who of rock ‘n’ roll, but the most historically important shot in the book is one showing John and Paul relaxing together in the back yard of Lennon’s rented Santa Monica beach house in 1974. There are scant other known images of the two ex-bandmates together during the 1970’s.

Lennon & McCartney reunited at John's rented Santa Monica beach house, 1974. Photo copyright May Pang, from "Instamatic Karma."

While that proposed reunion did not happen, there was one other opportunity. Lennon did consider writing with McCartney again, and in 1975 expressed a desire to join his ex-bandmate in New Orleans for a recording session.

Pang remembered:
“In January of ’75, after The Beatles had officially broken up, and John had signed the contract of the dissolution of The Beatles---he signed it at Disneyworld in the Polynesian Hotel---we were home in New York. We had Paul and Linda (McCartney) coming by, they were dropping in and out of our apartment quite frequently. And Paul mentioned to John, ‘Oh, Linda and I are going to go down to New Orleans. . .thinking about going there to record an album.’

“And then, all of a sudden, John turned around to me one morning and he said, ‘What would you think if I write with Paul again?’ And I spun my head around like ‘The Exorcist,’ and I looked at him, and said, ‘Write with Paul? I think it’s a great idea.’ He said, ‘Why do you think it would be a great idea?’ I said, ‘Well, you know, the two of you, solo-wise, are good, but the two of you together, when you write, it’s something special. Nobody can beat that team writing that you have. Look at all the Beatles’ stuff. Look at all the stuff you’ve done.’ He sort of sat back and said, ‘Okay.’”
"Okay" as in he intended to do it?
“Okay in the sense of considering it in his head,” Pang continued. “We talked about it, and he said, ‘Let’s go down to New Orleans. I’ve never been, and I’d like to go.’ I said okay. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen."
If it had, she believes it might well have turned into a Beatles session:
“I knew that if I got him down there, it would have started something. I knew that it was that close. I knew that he had already been itching for certain things. . .John was ready. He was just open for hanging out with Paul, at home---in New York, and L.A., but especially in New York. The two of them would pop up and visit all the time. We’d go out to dinner around the corner from where we lived, out for drinks, we were hanging out with them.”

But it was not to be. In what was to be his last concert appearance, Lennon joined Elton John on stage at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 28, 1974, reconciled with Ono backstage, and the New Orleans trip never happened.

In a poignant and comical incident that plays like heavy-handed symbolism in a movie, one of the last times Pang saw Lennon and McCartney together happened one morning in heavy New York traffic, just weeks before the Elton John concert. Lennon had tried to contact McCartney by phone to set up dinner, but Paul was out. So John and May set out in a taxi to keep a business appointment, only to find themselves stuck in traffic.
"It was really quite funny because we were in the taxicab, I think on 60th Street, between 5th and Madison, and we looked over, and John goes, 'Oh my God.' . .And he looks in the cab next to him, and who’s in the cab but Paul and Linda. And he rolls down the window, and he’s yelling, 'Hey, Paul! We tried to get you this morning.' Paul says, 'We’re on our way to see (I think it was) Lee,' his father-in-law. And John goes, 'Yeah, we’re on our way to Capitol.' Paul goes, 'Maybe we’ll have dinner later.' And now the taxis are moving, and the two guys are sticking their heads out, and our taxi went one way, and they went in a different direction."

Before Pang’s report of Lennon’s desire to reunite The Beatles, there were only a couple of indicators of his attitude on the subject. In a 1972 interview with then-KABC Eyewitness News reporter Elliot Mintz, Lennon said of a reunion,“It’s quite possible, yes. I don’t know why the **** we’d do it, but it’s possible.” In 1979, as part of an Apple Corps lawsuit against “Beatlemania,” Lennon testified in a written statement that The Beatles still had an ongoing interest in their trademark, and might reunite to record some new music for a film autobiography.

The closest the band ever came to regrouping happened on the 1972 “Ringo” album on the Lennon-penned “I’m the Greatest,” which featured John, George, Ringo, Billy Preston (organ), Klaus Voorman (bass.) (McCartney also performed on the album on two songs, making it the only post-Beatles album that included all four group members.) During the “Greatest” session in Los Angeles, Harrison allegedly suggested going on tour with that band configuration, prompting Lennon to respond, simply, “Are you daft?” While Lennon worked frequently with Ringo, and Ringo with Harrison, McCartney steered clear of his ex-mates in favor of his career with a new band, Wings.

There never has previously been a report of Lennon planning to become a Beatle again, prior to Pang's account.

Any such thoughts or impulses seemed to fade, if not die outright, after Lennon went back to Ono and entered his reclusive, stay-at-home “house husband” period that ended with the release of the “Double Fantasy” album in 1980. In one instance during that period, McCartney dropped in unannounced at the Dakota, guitar in tow, only to have Lennon allegedly turn him away, saying he was busy, remarking, "It..s not like the old days, y..know - you can..t just turn up when you want."

The Pang revelation puts a different light on what ultimately became a sad story. As one longtime Beatles enthusiast put it, “It does my heart good to know that John and the others got along, and that John wanted to put the band back together. It takes a sad song, and makes it better.”

It also arguably puts to rest any controversy lingering over the so-called “virtual Beatles reunion” of the mid-90’s, in which the three remaining Beatles added music to three Lennon home recordings furnished by Ono (two of which were finished and released.)
Bill King, longtime editor of the oldest Beatles fan publication in the United States, Beatlefan, explained:
“At the time of the ‘Threetles’ sessions, there was a segment of fandom and the critical community who dismissed what they were doing, saying, ‘John wouldn't have been part of it if he was alive.’ Pointing out that John himself had floated this reunion idea makes that argument pretty much invalid. I'm not sure John would have initiated a reunion, but if it had been for the purposes of the ‘Anthology,’ I think his earlier statement and Yoko's participation indicate he would have been part of it.”

As for the reunion that “logistics” apparently prevented, Pang said there is no indication of what, if any, song titles Lennon might have been considering at the time “because we didn’t get to that spot.” And yet. . . “Knowing him, I knew that he wanted to re-record certain songs for himself, you know? He always wanted to record ‘Help!’ again. He didn’t like the version that went out. He wanted to do a much slower version.”

Rip Rense has covered The Beatles for 35 years for many newspapers and magazines, and is a longtime contributing editor to Beatlefan magazine.

SIDEBAR: WHY DID LENNON CALL IT A 'LOST WEEKEND?'

May Pang and friend.

Pang: "What do you say when you’re sitting next to your wife, and people are asking you, 'What was it like being in L.A. and hanging out with your friends?' What is the politically correct thing to say at that moment? People forget the obvious. And the obvious is, he’s sitting next to his wife. In fact, in most interviews, when John was asked that question, they also noted that Yoko was sitting next to John. What was he going to say? I had the best time? That was all out the window. It’s an obvious, but nobody says it. In that year and a half that I spent with him, I think we did more work in his solo career than at any other time. Not only that, but he got his first number-one album with a number-one single. And on '# 9 Dream,' I’m glad that I was the one who was singing on there. That was my voice, which a lot of people didn’t realize. It’s not only that whispering (on the song, a voice whispers repeatedly, "John') but I also sing with him.

In the new video (Yoko Ono)
did to the song, she has her mouthing my voice! As I said, Milli Vanilli happens again. (Note: in the video done by Yoko Ono to accompany the release of “Walls and Bridges,” Yoko indeed appears to speak Pang’s whispered calls of “John.”)

WHERE TO HEAR CASEY PIOTROWKSI'S FULL INTERVIEW WITH MAY PANG:
Excerpt:
Piotrowski: "Did John ever talk about the four of them getting together? Do you think it would have happened?"
Pang: "Yes. We did."
Piotrowski: "Wow"
Pang: "Absolutely.

(Quoting John) Maybe we'll do one"
Piotrowski: "One song?"
Pang: (Quoting John) "If one comes around and it works, maybe we'll do another."
Piotrowski: "Yeah."
Pang: "But, yeah, we talked about it". And the first one that they talked about was early on, because it was early in '74 when it was discussed. (Quoting John) ‘Maybe we could do it for Fall of '74.’ And Harry Nilsson even said, "Oh, I want to sing", you know? But, obviously, certain things were not meant to be, as I would say."
Piotrowski: "It just never happened".
Pang: "It was just logistics. It was just a bunch of things going on at the time."

//oo\\

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Live long and prosper!

Dear John,
I remember when we first me, at Woolton, at the village fete. It was a beautiful summer day and I walked in there and saw you on stage. And you were singing "Come Go With Me," by the Dell Vikings, but you didn't know the words so you made them up. "Come go with me to the penitentiary." It's not in the lyrics.
I remember writing our first songs together. We used to go to my house, my dad's home, and we used to smoke Ty-Phoo tea with the pipe my dad kept in a drawer. It didn't do much for us but it got us on the road. We wanted to be famous.
I remember the visits to your mum's house. Julia was a very handsome woman, very beautiful woman. She had long, red hair and she played a ukulele. I'd never seen a woman that could do that. And I remember having to tell you the guitar chords because you used to play the ukulele chords.
And then on your 21st birthday you got 100 pounds off one of your rich relatives up in Edinburgh, so we decided we'd go to Spain. So we hitchhiked out of Liverpool, got as far as Paris, and decided to stop there, for a week. And eventually got our haircut, by a fellow named Jurgen, and that ended up being the "Beatle haircut."
I remember introducing you to my mate George, my schoolmate, and getting him into the band by playing "Raunchy" on the top deck of a bus. You were impressed. And we met Ringo who'd been working the whole season at Butlin's camp—he was a seasoned professional—but the beard had to go, and it did.
Later on we got a gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, which was officially a blues club. We didn't really know any blues numbers. We loved the blues but we didn't know any blues numbers, so we had announcements like "Ladies and gentleman, this is a great Big Bill Broonzy number called "Wake Up Little Suzie." And they kept passing up little notes—"This is not the blues, this is not the blues. This is pop." But we kept going.
And then we ended up touring. It was a bloke called Larry Parnes who gave us our first tour, I remember we all changed names for that tour. I changed mine to Paul Ramon, George became Carl Harrison and, although people think you didn't really change your name, I seem to remember you were Long John Silver for the duration of that tour. Bang goes another myth.
We'd been on a van touring later and we'd have the kind of night where the windscreen would break. We would be on the motorway going back up to Liverpool. It was freezing so we had to lie on top of each other in the back of the van, creating a Beatle sandwich. We got to know each other. These were the ways we got to know each other.
We got to Hamburg and met the likes of Little Richard, Gene Vincent… I remember Little Richard inviting us back to his hotel. He was looking at Ringo's ring and said, "I love that ring." He said, "I've got a ring like that. I could give you a ring like that." So we all went back to the hotel with him. (We never got a ring.)
We went back with Gene Vincent to his hotel room once. It was all going fine until he reached in his bedside drawer and pulled out a gun. We said "Er, we've got to go, Gene, we've got to go…" We got out quick!
And then came the USA—New York City—where we met up with Phil Spector, the Ronettes, the Supremes, our heroes, our heroines. And then later in L.A., we met up with Elvis Presley for one great evening. We saw the boy on his home territory. He was the first person I ever saw with a remote control on a T.V. Boy! He was a hero, man.
And then later, Ed Sullivan. We'd wanted to be famous, now we were getting really famous. I mean imagine meeting Mitzi Gaynor in Miami!
Later, after that, recording at Abbey Road. I still remember doing "Love Me Do." You officially had the vocal "love me do" but because you played the harmonica, George Martin suddenly said in the middle of the session, "Will Paul sing the line 'love me do?' the crucial line. I can still hear it to this day—you would go "Whaaa whaa," and I'd go "love me doo-oo." Nerves, man.
I remember doing the vocal to "Kansas City"—well I couldn't quite get it, because it's hard to do that stuff. You know, screaming out the top of your head. You came down from the control room and took me to one side and said, "You can do it, you've just got to scream, you can do it." So, thank you. Thank you for that. I did it.
I remember writing "A Day in the Life" with you, and the little look we gave each other when we wrote the line "I'd love to turn you on." We kinda knew what we were doing, you know. A sneaky little look.
After that there was this girl called Yoko. Yoko Ono. She showed up at my house one day. It was John Cage's birthday and she said she wanted to get hold of manuscripts of various composers to give to him, and she wanted one from me and you. So I said, "Well it's ok by me, But you'll have to go to John."
And she did...
After that I set up a couple of Brennell recording machines we used to have and you stayed up all night and recorded "Two Virgins." But you took the cover yourselves—nothing to do with me.
And then, after that there were the phone calls to you, the joy for me after all the business **** that we'd gone through was that we were actually getting back together and communicating once again. And the joy as you told me about how you were baking bread now, and how you were playing with your little baby, Sean. That was great for me because it gave me something to hold on to.
So now, years on, here we are. All these people. Here we are, assembled, to thank you for everything that you mean to all of us.
This letter comes with love, from your friend Paul.
John Lennon, you've made it. Tonight you are in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

God bless you.
Paul

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Iconic singer and songwriter Neil Young has had an honor bestowed upon him that is not received by many musicians -- his own spider.

[img]http://starling.rinet.ru/music/sleeves/zap_young.jpg[/img]

An East Carolina University biologist, Jason Bond, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider and opted to call the arachnid after his favorite musician, Canadian Neil Young, naming it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi.

"There are rather strict rules about how you name new species," Bond said in a statement.

"As long as these rules are followed you can give a new species just about any name you please. With regards to Neil Young, I really enjoy his music and have had a great appreciation of him as an activist for peace and justice."

Young, 62, is a veteran rock musician who rose to fame in the 1960s with the band Buffalo Springfield and later became a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, whose 1970 release "Deja Vu" has become a classic rock album.

The singer/songwriter, whose solo work ranges from older albums such as "Harvest" to newer CDs like "Living with War," has long been an activist for social and anti-war causes.

Bond discovered the new spider species in Jefferson County, Alabama, in 2007. He said spiders in the trapdoor genus, who tend to live in burrows and build trap doors to seal off their living quarters, are distinguished from one species to the next on the basis of differences in ********* .

He confirmed through the spider's DNA that the Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi is an identifiable, separate species of spider within the trapdoor genus.

Young is not the first musician to have a creature named after him. A species of beetle that looks as if it is wearing a tuxedo -- the whirligig beetle, or Orectochilus orbisonorum -- was named earlier this year after the late rock 'n' roll legend Roy Orbison and his widow Barbara.

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte

It's gonna be the BIG 60 for Ms. Stephanie Lynn Nicks and if you go to

www.nicksfix.com

You all can send her Birthday Greetings !!!

By: Howie Edelson

Guards at the John Lennon memorial in Havana, Cuba, have staged a round the-clock watch after two pairs of glasses have been stolen from the statue.

The Associated Press reported that four retirees have donated their time and rotate 12-hour shifts to protect the statue's replica of Lennon's wire-rimmed glasses. Eighty-nine-year-old watchman Juan Gonzalez passes the time by smoking up to seven cigars, and said, "You have to be here every day because the day you aren't, there the glasses go."

Several of the elderly guards keep the glasses in their pockets and only place them on the Lennon statue, which sits on a park bench, when tourists come by.

Fidel Castro was on hand statue was unveiled on December 8th, 2000 to mark the 20th anniversary of Lennon's murder.

In other Beatles-related news:

Ringo Starr will publish his first book of computer art paintings, called Painting Is My Madness, on June 19th.

The title is a play on Starr's 1981 Harry Nilsson-written track "Drumming Is My Madness," and the book contains candid photos of Starr by his wife Barbara Bach. The book also features "Ringo's humorous and insightful musings."

Painting Is My Madness is limited to only 3,000 copies. There will also be a special collector's deluxe hand-signed edition that includes an 8-inch-by-10 inch reproduction of Ringo's artwork. The hand-signed deluxe edition is limited to only 200 copies.

Starr's computer art was featured on the cover of his 2003 album Ringorama. For more information, log on to ringostarrart.com.

This is Starr's second book; in 2004 Starr published Postcards From The Boys which featured reproductions of dozens of postcards he received from John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, mainly after the Beatles' breakup.

For Some Music, It Has to Be Wal-Mart and Nowhere Else

By ROBERT LEVINE

One of the biggest music events of the summer has already taken place in Fayetteville, Ark. From Tuesday through Thursday last week, the Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas presented shows by Journey, the country singer Keith Urban, the “American Idol” personality Carrie Underwood and the alternative rock group All-American Rejects.

The occasion that brought this all-star line-up together? Not a festival or cause but Wal-Mart Stores’ annual shareholders meeting. Wal-Mart was the largest music retailer in the country last year, so musicians (and their labels) are eager to maintain good relationships, appearing in the special concerts for the chain, which are also open to the public.

During her performance, Ms. Underwood volunteered that a Wal-Mart had recently opened in her hometown, Checotah, Okla., and Keith Urban changed his lyrics from “Goodbye, city, I’m country-bound” to “I’m Wal-Mart-bound.” And the retailer is using its leverage to aggressively pursue new deals.

On Tuesday Wal-Mart started selling on an exclusive basis a three-disc collection by the popular 1980s band Journey called “Revelation.” The difference, however, is that there is no middleman: the album was bought directly from the band without the help of a record label. Journey went right to Wal-Mart and kept most of the money a record company would normally take as profit for the group. Last year Wal-Mart made a similar deal with the Eagles, who like Journey are represented by Front Line Management, the nation’s largest music management company.

The deals highlight the changing dynamics of the music industry as once-powerful labels decline because of the migration to digital downloads. To fill the gap, musicians are scrambling to connect with fans, and Wal-Mart is using these exclusive deals to assume a new role: hit maker.

The Eagles’ double disc, “Long Road Out of Eden,” sold 711,000 copies in its first week and three million since its release, according to Nielsen SoundScan, impressive numbers at a time when CD sales are declining. Journey sold 45,000 albums in its first three days on sale, and Irving Azoff, founder and chief executive of Front Line Management and a music industry veteran who ran MCA Records in the ’80s, predicted that it would sell more than 80,000 copies in its first week. That is probably enough to debut in the top five, and significantly more than its last album sold in total.

“With the downturn, the labels couldn’t match the marketing commitments that Wal-Mart could make,” Mr. Azoff said. “It was well in excess of anything a label could do.”

Front Line took on some of the traditional work of a record label, producing a video and promoting songs to radio. But most of the marketing was done at Wal-Mart itself. The chain ran print, radio and television advertisements that promoted the exclusive availability of the Eagles album. Stores display the Eagles and Journey albums in several locations, not just the music department, and this week some stores had the Journey DVD playing on their big-screen televisions.

In some ways, the arrangements that Wal-Mart has made with Journey and the Eagles represent the mainstream equivalent of the path that artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have taken by releasing albums on the Internet without a traditional label.

“It just goes to show you that fewer artists need to be associated with record companies,” said Larry Mestel, chief executive of Primary Wave Music Publishing and former chief operating officer of Virgin Records. “They don’t need to give up a big chunk of money to the record companies when they’re iconic. They can go direct to Wal-Mart and make four to five dollars per CD.”

It’s hard to tell how much traditional labels are threatened by the prospect of artists’ selling directly to retailers. New albums from more established acts can be less profitable if they have negotiated a higher royalty rate. And although the Eagles are reliable sellers, Journey is what industry executives delicately refer to as a “heritage act,” a steady summer concert attraction that sells relatively few albums of new material.

One reason the Eagles and Journey albums have sold so many copies is their price: $11.98. That’s an unusually low retail price, especially for “Revelation,” which consists of one CD of new songs, one CD of new renditions of Journey classics and one DVD of a recent concert performance. But one of Wal-Mart’s goals in promoting such releases is drawing customers into stores with a bargain they can’t find anywhere else.

“The goal with almost everything we do is to figure out how to make some kind of a profit,” said Gary Severson, Wal-Mart’s head of home entertainment. “But this can also give us the opportunity to add to the brand, and I hope we’ve accomplished that as well.”

Exclusive album deals have been happening for some time with that goal in mind. Wal-Mart and Best Buy, the two largest physical retailers of music, often get special editions of albums, with exclusive songs or video footage. In 2005, Wal-Mart made a deal to become the exclusive distributor of Garth Brooks albums, including a new collection of outtakes. But the Eagles and Journey are the first two major acts that have released albums of new material that are available at only one retailer. And although record labels tread carefully around such deals, for fear of upsetting rival stores, bands need not be so sensitive.

This summer Wal-Mart will carry an exclusive release by the young country singer Taylor Swift in a promotion that also calls for Ms. Swift to promote L.E.I. jeans. (In this case, Ms. Swift’s label was part of the deal.) And Mr. Azoff said that he was already talking to Wal-Mart about an exclusive deal for Fleetwood Mac’s next release. “Classic rock really works there,” Mr. Azoff said.

Front Line is only one of the major management companies that are trying to take on roles that have traditionally been filled by labels. The Nettwerk Music Group, which manages Avril Lavigne and Sarah McLachlan, has set up custom labels for some small artists. And Q-Prime, which manages Metallica, recently hired an executive to start an independent label of sorts.

The idea of treating the label as a middleman that can be cut out fits Wal-Mart’s approach to cost-cutting. In the past the chain has pushed record labels to lower their wholesale prices, arguing that customers would buy more CDs if they were less expensive.

“I think that with any product, when the price goes up, the demand goes down,” said Mr. Severson. “Sometimes it’s about the right artist with the right product at the right price.”

For Journey, some of the success of “Revelation” is also about the right timing. For a band that hit its commercial peak in the early ’80s, Journey has enjoyed an unlikely revival in the last few years. The song “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” has been licensed for “Family Guy,” “Scrubs,” “Laguna Beach” and, most famously, the last episode of “The Sopranos,” and the exposure increased the song’s sales on Apple’s iTunes store. Journey, which has gone through several vocalists, recently hired a new singer, Arnel Pineda, whom Journey’s guitarist, Neal Schon, discovered singing the band’s covers on YouTube.

But Journey would almost certainly not be selling as many albums without the support of Wal-Mart.

“Shelf space has shrunk so much over the last five years that for anyone to give you shelf space and exposure is a big deal,” said Terry McBride, chief executive of Nettwerk Music Group. “Should the labels be worried? There’s been a move away from the labels for a number of years now. And it’s not necessarily their fault. The shelf space to have those records sell just isn’t there. That’s the market reality.”

"Walmart" is the biggest low-cost discount "buy everything here" chain of retailers in the USA. Selling CDs there is the last-gasp of the hardliners who still want to sell plastic discs.

Hey, just wondering, what do you think of Bjork?
I liked the Sugar Cubes and was not surprised when she went solo.

Can't say I've loved everything she's put out but a lot of it is FANtastic, imo!

img]http://www.lynnedjohnson.com/diary/images/kanye_west_rollingstone.jpg[/img]

The Bonnaroo boobirds were out in full force for Kanye West this weekend.

The Grammy winner walked onto the festival stage nearly two hours past his scheduled 2:45 a.m. performance time Sunday morning and was greated by bleary-eyed fans' chorus of boos and chants of "Kanye ***** ."

West was originally set to kick things off at 8:15 p.m., but because he wanted to make the most of his Glow-in-the-Dark Tour's lighting show, the hip-hopster's camp asked to push back the gig to 2:45 a.m. following Pearl Jam's show.

However, the Seattle grunge rockers' gig lasted an hour longer than planned, with Eddie Vedder and bandmates not wrapping until 1:15 a.m. Then there was an extended break while Pearl Jam's roadies disassembled the band's stage and West's crew set up his own elaborate backdrop, a glow-in-the-dark spaceship along with undulating black platform and raised video screen.
Organizers posted a message via Jumbotron that the "Can't Tell Me Nothing" rapper wouldn't be taking the stage until 3:15 a.m., then 3:30. When 4:15 a.m. rolled around and still no West, the antsy crowd began hurling glow sticks at the stage and screaming anti-West sentiments. Bonnaroo officials didn't help the matter, not informing festivalgoers why the changeover was taking so long.

West finally made his entrace at 4:30 a.m., but by then, many exhausted attendees had had enough and returned to their tents.

Apparently, they didn't miss too much.

Judging by online reviews, West's performance didn't stand out from the 150 acts performing at the four-day musical campout. In fact, it was a yawner.

"He was two hours late, cut his show short, didn't once acknowlegde the crowd that waited two hours on an already late show, not even a wave goodbye...I'm no longer a Kanye fan, huge disappointment," one fan wrote at the music blog Stereogum.com.

"It's not the stage hands' fault; that stage was set up for well over an hour before Kanye decided to grace us with his presence," wrote another attendee on VillageVoice.com. "The next time he holds that finger up and proclaims himself as #1, I hope someone tells him what he can do with that finger."

Per festival reports, West failed to even acknowledge his tardiness.

The bad vibes carried over to Sunday's daytime slate, when during his set pedal-steel guitar virtuoso Robert Randolph groused about West's behavior, prompting fans to reprise the "Kanye ***** " chant...D

There was no immediate comment from the West camp.

Sunday, June 22, 2008
BY LUCIANA LOPEZ
Newhouse News Service

Tune up the bikes and scrape up the french fry grease: It's summer touring season for bands. As gas prices climb ever upward, musicians have had to get creative at something more than their music.

The band Blind Pilot is traveling under pedal power. And psych- rockers Apollo Sunshine are converting their van to run on vegetable oil.

There's an easier way to save gas money, though: Rocker Michael Dean Damron is just flat-out canceling dates.

Different solutions, but all applied to the same problem: how to balance the need to tour, set in mo tion by declining CD sales, against the skyrocketing cost of gas, which makes touring more expensive and less profitable.

"It's completely essential to tour," says Kevin O'Connor, manager for the Lucky Madison indie record label. An unknown band might get away with skipping a tour to focus on its home base, he says, but for any kind of growth, staying off the road just isn't an op tion.

The numbers bear that out. Promoting an album can cost an indie label $6,000 or $7,000, O'Con nor calculates. If a CD costs $6 or $7 to produce, that's about 1,000 CDs sold just to break even -- much less to pay a band. That's why so many bands, especially small indie outfits, have traditionally made their money on the road -- perhaps a few hundred dollars a night. With gas costing more than $4 a gallon, growing travel expenses can wipe that margin out.

That's especially the case out West, where cities big enough to hold shows are spread farther apart. "I just had to cancel shows in Denver," said Damron, who lives in Portland, Ore. "I can't go as far as Denver. I can go as far as Salt Lake (City)."

Not that big tours necessarily have it much easier. Sure, Kenny Chesney charges plenty for a concert ticket, but his traveling ex penses reach into the tens of thou sands of dollars. On his current tour, Chesney requires 18 trucks and 10 buses, says Steve Hoker, driver coordinator with the Nash ville-based Hemphill Brothers Coach, whose clients have populated many a Billboard chart.

The buses, which weigh about 56,000 pounds fully loaded and have 240-gallon gas tanks, cost about $1 a mile to operate; the 350-gallon trucks are slightly costlier, because they haul more weight (up to 80,000 pounds).

And even as the cost of gas keeps rising, the number of albums sold annually keeps falling. In 2004, Nielsen SoundScan tallied 666.7 million albums (CDs and digital) sold in the United States. By 2007, the number plummeted to 501 million. This year looks even worse: If album sales continue at the same rate as the first five months of the year, when 171.8 million sold, the final number will be around 412.3 million.

Tour economics aren't for bands alone, either. Concertgoers, ultimately, pay the touring costs, either through higher ticket prices or higher prices for merchandise such as T-shirts and posters.

Higher gas prices no longer will affect the touring plans of one band. Blind Pilot's members are setting out by bike this year to promote their new album, says drummer Ryan Dobrowski.

Dobrowski has designed a drum set that fits inside itself for easy biking, and the bass player is building a trailer case for his upright bass. The band plans to update its West Coast itinerary online so fans can follow the cycling route.

Still, even a bike tour has its costs, Dobrowski noted.

"It might not be all that financially better," he said. "You do want to eat all the time."

Luciana Lopez is a staff writer for the Oregonian of Portland, Ore., and can be contacted at lucianalo pez@news.oregonian.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie's marriage has been in the spotlight

The star is said to have hired Fiona Shackleton, the lawyer who represented Sir Paul McCartney in his recent divorce battle.

As the McCartney case demonstrated, Miss Shackleton is adept at protecting the fortunes of her star clients, with the former Beatle giving up only £24.3 million of his £825m fortune to ex-wife Heather Mills.

Madonna's wealth is estimated at £300 million and she is not believed to have signed a pre-nuptial agreement before her wedding to Ritchie in December 2000.

Ritchie, the film director whose previous credits include Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, could walk away from a divorce with up to £50 million, according to legal experts.

While he remained behind closed doors at the couple's Wiltshire mansion this week, a grim-faced Madonna, 49, was spotted alone in New York without her wedding ring.

She was pictured driving away from her Manhattan apartment in her SUV, eyes hidden behind dark glasses.

The rumour mill swung into action several months ago, with claims that the couple effectively live separate lives.

Their last joint public appearance was at the Cannes Film Festival last month, where Madonna was promoting her documentary, I Am Because We Are. Ritchie, 39, appeared deeply uncomfortable as they posed together on the red carpet, and they barely exchanged a word.

The pair had been expected to delay the announcement of their separation until the end of Madonna's forthcoming Sticky & Sweet Tour, which begins in October.

But the disclosure that lawyers have been consulted has led to worldwide speculation about the split, and the couple are likely to make a formal statement sooner rather than later.

According to the Daily Mirror, Ritchie has reluctantly agreed to the divorce.

The couple have spent most of their married life in London, sharing a £7 million home close